Moving from HTML help to WebHelp

[stephenm98165107]

Good day,

We have been using RH for many years to create and manage an HTML help system for our product and are now switching to webhelp (for both online and local content). Using RH 2017 we have successfully migrated our projects and are using the latest Responsive HTML5 capabilities to create webhelp versions (that process went very smoothly) and can still generate the legacy HTML Help outputs as well. So far, so good.

In our application, we access help content at both the topic (associated with a particular dialog or form in the application) and keyword level (for instance, taking a selected word in a document and doing an index-find in the .chm file).

Being very new to web help, what I'm looking for is some API that will allow me to launch the web help and do an index find on the supplied keyword (this would replace the equivalent calls into the HH API). My initial attempt to search for this information have not been successful so it finally dawned on me to save time and ask the community.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

Stephen

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I don't believe that there is an equivalent in HTML5 to what you describe in CHMs.

[Peter Grainge]

It's important to note that HTML5 help and webhelp are two entirely different outputs and the terms should not be interchanged. The calls are different.

There are some topics about calling help on my site and they have links to Willam van Weelden's topics on calling HTML5 help. Also the subject was discussed in this thread recently.

Calling CSH Multiscreen HTML5 help file from C++ API

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information

@petergrainge

[stephenm98165107]

Peter,

I've read William's article (Context Sensitivity in Responsive and Multiscreen HTML5) and it seems to confirm what Jeff is saying - there really isn't a way to do an automatic index find in a Responsive HTML5 system (or really any output type other than HTML Help).

I'm limited to contextual calls by map number, topic id or URL - but nothing for "seeding" the index.

Is that accurate?  (if so, ratzelfratz!)

[Peter Grainge]

As the answer is Yes, it is accurate, you have a 24 hour licence for a double Ratzelfratzl.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information

@petergrainge

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Are you able to expound on what is meant by the talk of "seeding" the index? I'm not sure what you are referring to here.

Cheers... Rick (who is intrigued by the possibility of a double Ratzelfratzi)

[stephenm98165107]

Rick,

Remember that, until now, our help system has always been HTML Help (.chm) based. So I'll describe how it works now...

Our product is a development language so we have a large set of keywords that signify commands, classes, properties, events and methods in addition to the application-level help. So when you are in the development Studio you might be in the dialog that allows you to configure the tools menu and there is context help in the system for that dialog / functionality. You press F1 on that dialog and it uses a conventional context method (map id or whatever) to launch the help and go to that page. That's the easy part.

Besides that "conventional" context help we also support jumping directly to one of those keywords from the code editor (remember, we are a language) in our Studio.  So you could be anywhere in the source code (based on the cursor position in the code editor) and press F1 and then it uses the HH_ API to take the current keyword and jump to the index entry for that keyword. Now if there is only one index entry for that keyword it goes directly to that content page (and syncs the toc and index panes) and life is good. If there is more than one index entry for that keyword it pops up a selection box and then you move on from there.

What we are trying to do is duplicate that same functionality in a Responsive HTML5 output. Since there is no API for triggering an indexed find in that type of output I described it as "seeding the index". Think of it as some way to automate the following sequence...

1. Launch the help system

2. Switch to the index pane

3. Type in a keyword (such a cWebView - one of our classes)

4. See that there is only one match - and select it (the content for cWebView is now shown)

5. Switch to the TOC (which is now already synced to cWebView)

...and by the way, don't show all the steps between step 1 and step 5 (as long as there is only one index entry for that keyword - things would get more complicated if there were more than one entry for the keyword in question).

Essentially, I'm trying to mimic what is easy using the HH_ api with something (anything) when the target is Responsive HTML5.

Onward!